Entitlement thinking, city expenses and your tax dollars
September 10, 2008  RELATED

At Monday's Novi City Council Meeting, council approved a nearly $50,000 city administration recommendation to connect the city's public access programming to AT&T's new cable TV service, subscribed to by an estimated 1,500 residents.

Council's reasoning was that these folks pay fees on their AT&T bills, and therefore are entitled to such access. Makes sense. However, there were issues with the approval that were of concern.

First, were less expensive alternatives considered? When queried about this, the city's information services chief, Rob Petty, indicated he wanted to go with the proposed solution so there would be no finger pointing if things went awry - a nice way to do things when it's not your money. In fact, AT&T's own proposal indicates other's services or existing Internet services could be used. That would cut the cost in half.

Second, Petty indicated the new line could be used as a backup for the city's primary Internet line. Doesn't that mean AT&T customers would lose their access to city programming any time the city's Internet goes down? And if that's the case, why not just piggy-back the new service on the existing or a faster Internet line in the first place? And, is it that easy to switch Internet lines on a system as complicated as the city's? Doubtful. It sounded like this wasn't really thought through until the last minute.

Third, two communication lines were approved, effectively doubling the cost. There was a lot of double-speak when questions arose over this issue. In the end, it appears to us that the intent is to provide AT&T's customers with more programming than is available on the Bright House system.

Fourth, the total fee income from AT&T to date was repeatedly compared to the annual costs of providing this new service. That's apples and oranges. Some of the fees should be going to SWOCC and the city to pay for the production of these shows, not back to AT&T to pay for their own communications lines to be used to deliver content to their own customers.

Fifth, when asked if content other than council meetings is available on the city's website, city spokesperson Sheryl Walsh indicated during the meeting there is not. In fact, most city-produced content is available on the city's website, and we suspect for many accessing that content will be easier and more convenient that trying to find it on AT&T's new system (it's not a TV channel on their system like it is on Bright House, but rather a more complicated menu option).

In the end, it appeared to us that since AT&T's customers are paying fees, just like Bright House customers are, council felt they are entitled to the same access to city-produced materials. Fair enough.

However, it seems that common sense and fiscal responsibility went out the door at the same time through this entitlement thinking. This is what gets a lot of governmental agencies in trouble.

Wonder why the county is building those silly roundabouts in the area? It's an entitlement grant - a shadow budget of federal funds for special road projects. That's why nearly $100 million will be spent to allow us to drive in circles, and it's also why we have all those fancy, "do they really work?" traffic cameras all over the county.

Folks, this is the only way these type of projects get approved. No one would approve such direct expenses, so the money flows through a couple of agencies (or in this case from you, to AT&T, to the city, and back to AT&T) and comes out smelling clean. It's legal government money laundering, but in the end it's the People who are really paying for all of these things.

We the People are pleased that AT&T's customers will be able to watch the same programming, and likely even more, than Bright House's customers can. However, we are not pleased that the city seemed to consider this expense an entitlement and appears to have not fully investigated alternatives before approving a new, unbudgeted expense. We think it could have been done for less than half the approved cost. The difference comes out on the city's bottom line, which is if course your tax bill.

Hopefully in the future, such entitlement thinking will garner closer scrutiny by our usually diligent Novi City Council.

Kudos to all involved in the planning for the new Hyatt Hotel to be built at the Rock Financial Center, an organization that's really making Novi look good to the region, and even nationally.